Watchdog Group Slams UK Funding of Hate-Filled PA School Books

Watchdog Group Slams UK Funding of Hate-Filled PA School Books
by Ezra HaLevi

(IsraelNN.com) A British taxpayers advocacy group has published a report slamming England’s continued funding of the Palestinian Authority’s Jihadist hate curriculum in PA school textbooks.

“How British taxpayers are funding hate education and violence in the Middle East,” was the title of the paper published by the TaxPayers' Alliance. “'Funding Hate Education' reveals disturbing evidence showing how British taxpayers’ money has been spent helping to fund hate education and promote violence in the Middle East,” the report states (Click here to download full report in .pdf format).

“In order for a [peace] deal to stick over the long term, it is essential that the Palestinian population fully accepts it,” said Matthew Sinclair, the author of the report and a policy analyst at the TaxPayers’ Alliance. “This is why it is particularly concerning that British aid is supporting the radicalization of the Palestinian population, particularly the children… British taxpayers’ money is supporting the radicalization of Palestinian youth and hurting our objectives in the region. This needs to, and can, change.”

According to the report, the £47.5 million of British aid to the PA is supporting:

* Textbooks praising insurgents in Iraq, arguing for the execution of apostates and the idealization of martyrdom.
* Television broadcasts aimed at children that urge violence against non-Muslims and promote the view that Israel should not exist.

The British newspaper Express elicited a response to the report from the Department for International Development (DFID), which answered: “We don’t fund the Palestinian Authority directly and therefore don’t fund textbooks."

The TaxPayers’ Alliance fired back almost immediately: “How strange, on the 11th of July last year they put out a press release titled: ‘UK leads the way in resuming direct aid for Palestinian Authority,’” the group pointed out on its web site, reprinting the release, which boasted: “The UK has underlined its support for the Palestinian Authority with a contribution of £3 million to allow it to begin paying off its private sector debts, Douglas Alexander, Secretary of State for International Development, announced today. A month after Hamas’s takeover of Gaza and the establishment of a new Government by President Mahmoud Abbas, today’s announcement makes the UK one of the first countries to resume direct financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority.”

“Our report raises serious issues about how the UK contributes to the long-term prospects for an end to the Israel-Palestine conflict. It makes positive recommendations, modeled on longstanding practice in Northern Ireland, for how our aid money can encourage an end to radicalization and hate education. The DFID should look at those recommendations instead of issuing nonsensical rebuttals.”

For more information on incitement in PA textbooks, visit the Israel-based Center For Monitoring the Impact of Peace, whose reports are widely quoted in the TaxPayers’ report.